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article <\/p>\n article <\/p>\n
FUYANG, CHINA – JANUARY 30, 2026 – US dollar banknotes captured in Fuyang City, Anhui Province, China on January 30, 2026. (Photo credit should read CFOTO\/Future Publishing via Getty Images) <\/p>\n
PENNSYLVANIA – The definition of middle class in the United States is always evolving, and changes drastically from state to state.<\/p>\n
With cost of living and salary as two major factors, are you considered middle class where you live?<\/p>\n
By the numbers:<\/p>\n
A recent study<\/a> revealed the lowest income needed to be considered middle class in each state, ranging from $39,418 to $69,885 \u2014 more than a $30,000 difference!<\/p>\n In Pennsylvania, you need to earn at least $51,697 this year, which is nearly $2,500 more than last year. The upper-middle class income range for Pennsylvania is more than double: $120,626 to $155,090.<\/p>\n Those numbers are even higher in New Jersey, which ranks as the second-hardest state to enter the middle class.<\/p>\n This year, New Jersey residents must make at least $69,529 to be considered middle class \u2014 a $3,015 increase from last year. To be upper-middle class in New Jersey, residents’ income has to range from $162,235 to $208,588.<\/p>\n Delaware falls in the middle with the lowest income of $58,356 and an upper-middle class range of $136,164 to $175,068.<\/p>\n Big picture view:<\/p>\n Mississippi is the easiest state to be considered middle class, while Massachusetts is the hardest.<\/p>\n Massachusetts Upper-middle class income range: $163,066 to $209,656Lowest income to be middle class: $69,885 Mississippi Upper-middle class income range: $91,975 to $118,254Lowest income to be middle class: $39,418 <\/p>\n Dig deeper:<\/p>\n The Pew Research Center defines “middle class” as earning an income between two-thirds and twice the national median income, falling between the socio-economic hierarchy of the working class and upper class.<\/p>\n About half of the adults in the United States considered themselves to be part of the middle class in 2022, according to a Gallup survey.<\/a><\/p>\n The Source: Information from this article was sourced from Money Lion, SmartAsset, Pew Research and Gallup.<\/p>\n Money<\/a>New Jersey<\/a>Pennsylvania<\/a>Delaware<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article FUYANG, CHINA – JANUARY 30, 2026 – US dollar banknotes captured in Fuyang City, Anhui Province, China…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[30284,83,139,1962,539,28,30,29,593],"class_list":["post-116288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-de","tag-money","tag-news","tag-nj","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}